Overnight Campaign: Trump Vs. Muslims

by Jonathan Swan - 12/07/15 6:38 PM ET

Welcome to OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races.

It’s a tough call, but Republican frontrunner Donald Trump may have uttered his most controversial words so far this campaign.

Late on Monday — to the horror of most everyone on the left and a good number on the right — the Trump campaign released a statement titled the “Donald J. Trump Statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration.” In it, Trump calls for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

Trump does not provide any further details of his plan, but you can be sure it will dominate the next news cycle or 10.

Meantime, refresh your browser at The Hill for the latest Trump developments and return tomorrow morning to read Niall Stanage’s article on how Democrats are increasingly concerned about how President Obama’s handling of ISIS and Jonathan Swan’s piece on how some political donors are making a strange double-sided bet.

It’s the start of yet another wild campaign week.

RACE TO 1600 PENN

A FREE WHACK: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Republican White House hopefuls are assailing President Obama’s Oval Office speech on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

ALL IN ON CRUZ: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is joining the criticism of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Bush’s GOP presidential rival, for opposing the National Security Agency’s (NSA) bulk phone records collection program.

WELCOME ALLY: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is backing Hillary Clinton’s call to block Republicans’ efforts to chip away at banking reform, giving the Democratic front-runner a rare nod from an important influence on progressive voters.

ULTIMATE POWER LUNCH: The Hill’s Jordan Fabian reports: President Obama ate lunch at the White House on Monday with Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of State and the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

GRANITE MARCO: The Hill’s Niall Stanage reports: Marco Rubio is on the move in New Hampshire, edging up to second place in almost all recent polls of the crucial primary state. The Florida senator is still a long way behind Donald Trump, but if he can solidify his hold on second place, he could be positioned to surge in the two months before the state’s Feb. 9 primary.

ODDS AND ENDS:

With two presidential debates next week and plenty of criticism this year of debate moderators, here are some insights from the legendary Charlie Rose from an interview by The Hill’s Judy Kurtz conducted at Sunday night’s Kennedy Center Honors.

Asked his take the structure of this year’s debates compared to the ones he moderated, Rose said, “We did it a different way. We had the candidates sit around a table and that was fun for me. And I like doing it.” The hardest thing about moderating, he said, is “trying to make sure that you give equal time to all the people who are sitting at the table. And making sure you’re always listening and responding. I think listening and trying to be fair to the participants is the most important thing. And always remembering it’s not just ‘yes,’ but it’s the ‘yes, but,’ question.”

The next Republican debate is on Dec. 15, the Dems on Dec. 19.

CHRISTIE CENTERS ON GUNS: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Chris Christie signaled an openness to backing a proposal that would restrict those on the No Fly List from buying guns, one of the few GOP presidential candidates to take that stance.

SANTORUM VS. CLINTON (THE OTHER ONE): The Hill’s Caitlin Yilek reports: Rick Santorum is slamming former President Clinton for comments he apparently made in 1997 about the death of the then-senator’s newborn son.

POLL POSITION

CRUZING IN IOWA: The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has surpassed Donald Trump and Ben Carson in Iowa, a new poll finds, giving the Texas Republican his first lead of the cycle in an early voting state.

CLINTON SUPREME: The Hill’s Mark Hensch reports: Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton wins hypothetical matchups against every 2016 Republican White House hopeful, according to a new poll. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson fares best against the former secretary of State but still falls short among all registered voters in the MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist survey.

TIGHT AS IT GETS: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and likely Democratic opponent New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan are tied in New Hampshire’s high-profile Senate race, a new poll found on Monday.

THE DAILY TRUMP

HE NEEDS THE PUBLICITY: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Donald Trump made the shortlist for TIME magazine’s 2015 Person of the Year, which will be announced on Wednesday.

A LOW-ENERGY WEBSITE: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: A website with a domain name that contains Jeb Bush’s name redirects to Donald Trump’s official presidential campaign website.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“.@realdonaldtrump removes all doubt: He is running for President as a fascist demagogue.”

— Former Maryland governor and current Democratic presidential candidate, Martin O’Malley in reponse to his proposal to ban Muslim immigrants.

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

JUMPING IN: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) became the second declared candidate to announce his bid for Sen. David Vitter’s (R-La.) seat.

ELIJAH OUT? Roll Call reports: Two prominent Baltimore Democrats who endorsed Rep. Chris Van Hollen on Monday said their hometown congressman, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, told them he’s not getting into the race to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski.

TOUGH WORDS FROM KIRK: NBC 5 reports: Senator Mark Kirk weighed in on the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on Sunday. “As far as I’m concerned, every single police officer who witnessed this shooting and failed to arrest officer Jason Van Dyke or who falsified reports to mislead investigators should be off the streets,” said Sen. Kirk in a statement.

MONEY WATCH

WHAT’S THAT ABOUT FREE LUNCHES? The Center for Public Integrity reports: A new super PAC is offering one lucky winner a huge opportunity: the chance to dine with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. There’s just one problem. “We have no knowledge of this at all,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said. “We haven’t heard of it.”

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW:

(All times Eastern)

Donald Trump holds a Pearl Harbor Day Rally with Donald J. Trump at the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, S.C. at 7 p.m. today.

Carly Fiorina holds a Technology Association of Iowa Town Hall in Cedar Rapids at 7 p.m. today. On Tuesday morning, she’ll have a town hall meeting at the home office of American Enterprise Group in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bernie Sanders is a guest on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” at 8 p.m. today.

John Kasich heads to a town hall in Myrtle Beach, S.C. on Tuesday.

Bernie Sanders will be a guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday on NBC.

TWEET OF THE DAY

.@Realdonaldtrump has gone from making absurd comments to being downright dangerous with his bombastic rhetoric.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 7, 2015